Slouching Towards Bethlehem… and Further Psychoanalytical Explorations, by Nina Coltart,  Phoenix Publishing House, Bicester, Oxfordshire, 2021 (Original work published in 1992),  224 pp. How to Survive as a Psychotherapist, by Nina Coltart,  Phoenix Publishing House, Bicester, Oxfordshire, 2021, (Original work published in 1993),  162 pp. The Baby and the Bathwater, by Nina Coltart,  Phoenix Publishing House, Bicester, Oxfordshire, 2021, (Original work published in 1996),  192 pp.

Nina Coltart's Independence

In a period of four years, Nina Coltart published three books: Slouching towards Bethlehem… and further Psychoanalytical Explorations, How to Survive as a Psychotherapist, and The Baby and the Bathwater. Combined, the books have a total of thirty chapters. Most of the essays in the 1992 book and 1996 book had been published before in journals and edited books. The second 1993 book contains essays composed specifically for that publication, the themes mostly being about case material, points of technique, and clinical practice. Despite the implications of the title How to Survive as a Psychotherapist it is not a how-to-manual but, rather a collection of ideas for beginning and seasoned psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. All three books have been reissued with new forwards that solidify the reputation of Nina Coltart as a significant and unique member of the British Independent Group.

Coltart wrote about her clinical work with honesty and brilliance. She wrote with a spoken flair of expression and kept technical language to a minimum. In fact, in his forward to her final 1996 book, Christopher Bollas, who was a close friend, writes about her case histories and essays, “She calls herself an ‘armchair traveller,’ and this book is a unique entry in the genre of travel literature which is closest to the English heart” (p. xiii).

There is an inspiring quality to her writings. Always interested in what is called these days “the work-life balance,” she suffered great traumas in her life, and in the end died by her own hands. She was more interested in clinical theory over theoretical ideas. If she had one flaw it was that she was accessible and unpretentious. This review essay is a selected and short introduction to the life and times of Coltart, her writings, and her suicide at age 70, in deteriorating health. It

is a pleasure to note that the thirty chapters all merit the attention of the reader for their sheer humanity. While I